Urban Future Lab

Start-up culture is about zooming in and out of the micro and macro very quickly, all the time. How might we design an experience in an incubator space that spark imagination to play and find inspiration in the unexpected?

Working with many start ups in the past, it's clear to see some shared insights about the demand and culture of this environment. When facing mountains of seemingly insurmountable challenges, at very fast speeds, it's easy to get lost and forget why you felt inspired in the first place.

Tasked with injecting delight into this energy incubator space, we immersed ourself at their office to observe their tenants' patterns. How do people spend their time? What do they do when they get stuck? What frustrates them, and how do they get unstuck? Through our immersive research, we learned that there's magic in the unexpected—the moments when you allow your mind to wander. So we designed the space with this in mind, in order to foster small moments of surprise, delight, and a bit of fun, for a high-stress environment.